Standing on the wall that surrounded the Tendo residence, a red rooster watched a great ball of fire rise over the horizon. Morning had come, and so the rooster threw its head back and let out its crowing call.
Inside the Tendo residence, Ranma woke up.
Ranma rose slowly, opening his right eye first and struggling to open his left until he reached up and cleaned the gunk that had glued his eyelids together. He tried to stand, only to find he couldn't. He looked over and saw why; there was a panda laying on his other arm.
"Hey pop," mumbled Ranma, poking his father. He tried again, giving him a little shake. "Pop." Then, his patience having completely run out, he grit his teeth and shouted, "Get off my arm, you lazy furball!"
Genma awoke just in time to see Ranma's foot flying towards his snout.
The panda went soaring across the room, and Ranma finally retrieved his arm. He turned to the door, only to be tackled to the ground and crushed under the heaviness of his transformed father. "Get offa me, pop," he demanded, though such a demand fell on deaf ears as the panda made sounds somewhat akin to victorious laughter.
"Oh, will you two quiet down?" said Akane, seemingly appearing from the shadows. In her hands was a kettle of warm water, and she poured its contents on the bear's scalp. "It's too early for this."
Genma wasn't as heavy now that he was human, and Ranma easily knocked him off his back.
With that out of the way, Ranma continued his morning routine. He took a quick shower, brushed his hair and tied it back in a ponytail, put on his olive Chinese uniform, and finally went to the bathroom mirror and started brushing his teeth.
Brushing his teeth before he would eat his breakfast in a few minutes seemed a bit counter-intuitive, but he didn't think of that.
Instead, what he was thinking about was that naggy tingling feeling in his brain, which told him that he was forgetting something.
Am I forgetting something? he thought as he washed the paste out of his mouth. I feel like I am. What is it that I'm not remembering?
Fortunately, he wouldn't have to worry about that too long, because he remembered exactly what he was forgetting when he showed up to the breakfast table and noticed Kasumi smiling in his direction.
Ohhhh right. That.
"Good morning Ranma," the young woman chirped. She handed him his bowl of rice and plate of eggs.
"Morning," he weakly replied. Already he could feel the heat spreading across his cheeks. He quickly started drinking water in an attempt to fight it back.
"So did you have time to think over what I asked?"
Ranma nearly spit out his water. Oh no, not in front of everyone.
"Hmm? Did you ask something from Ranma, Kasumi? Is it something important?" her father asked.
"Oh, I just asked him if he'd take me with him to his school's dance."
And there it was, out in the open. Now everyone in the Tendo house knew, and Ranma could feel his stomach falling as a cold sense of horror crept up his spine.
Kasumi was a special person in their lives, and everyone was just a little bit more protective of her. Ranma had seen how especially protective Mr. Tendo could be with her when it came to boys, and if he thought that he was putting the moves on her, trying to make her another one of his suitors...especially while already engaged to Akane...
Ranma looked to the exit. If he moved now, he could probably make it before scary demon head Tendo appeared...
"Oh? Well that's nice," said Mr. Tendo. He grabbed a glass of milk and drank it, then wiped the milk mustache from his regular mustache. "I hope you two will have fun."
Wait, what?
Ranma was confused. He looked around the table, and while there were looks of surprise, they were more along the lines of That's neat rather than Oh merciful Buddha, this pervert's trying to add Kasumi to his harem, someone stop him!
There was one notable exception though.
Besides him, a frightening pillar of black smoke rose to the heavens, as mighty as the one that guided the Israelites. Its presence choked him, and he could feel the cosmic pressure of such ferocious aura crushing his bones just by virtue of his close proximity to it.
Akane was not happy.
"Uh...Akane..."
"What?" she growled.
"Um...well...she was the one who asked me, so—"
He didn't get to finish his sentence. Not before an entire table was swung and bashed in his face, sending him flying into the pond.
"Fine, go with her, I don't care," said Akane, getting up and crossing her arms. Her face was twisted into a look of pure scorn. "It's not like I was even thinking of asking you anyway."
"Well when you say it like that, it sounds really convincing," muttered Nabiki dryly.
"Oh, who even asked you?" Akane said to her before she stormed off, stomping her way back up the stairs.
Over in the pond, Ranma resurfaced, now in his girl form. "What the hell did I even do to her?" she grumbled. "Seriously, she's so uncute."
A shadow fell on her, and she turned to find a hand stretched out to her.
"Here, let me help you," said Kasumi.
Ranma said nothing. A slight pink tinged her cheeks as she reached out and grabbed Kasumi's hand.
Her skin is...really soft, she couldn't help but note.
Kasumi helped her out of the water. "Thanks," said Ranma.
Kasumi smiled.
Stupid Ranma...who does he think he is anyway?
The good thing about the weekend is that Akane had all the time in the day to herself. She didn't need to sit at her desk through the first half of the day, so she was free to go for longer morning jogs than usual. That was especially important now, because she needed to get rid of all that aggressive energy she worked up at the breakfast table.
As she ran, she threw a few punches to the air in front of her. She imagined Ranma's face was there.
Honestly, she mentally growled, him and Kasumi?
Thinking about those two made her heart throb. Not in the pleasant way either; in the way that felt like her heart was about to sink into a dark, hopeless abyss. It was bad enough that he was going with someone else, but why did that someone else have to be her older sister? Was this him getting back at her? No, wait, boys weren't allowed to ask girls to the dance. So...was this Kasumi getting back at her for something she had done? No, no, that made no sense...maybe she was trying to teach her a lesson about...something...
"I think I need to sit down, I'm thinking conspiratorial..."
Akane jogged until she found a bench, conveniently next to a vending machine. She took a coin out from her pocket and bought a small water bottle, so cold that little droplets formed as she extracted it from the machine. She sat on the bench and nursed the bottle in her hands, until it wasn't so cold that it would give her brain freeze.
Her head leaned slightly back as she drank, the tips of her short hair brushing her seat. When she finished, she just set the bottle down at her side and remained looking upwards.
In the blue sky above, a pair of clouds floated above. At her angle, it looked like a boy dancing with a girl in a very puffy dress.
Akane stared at those clouds, and a new emotion rose from the dying embers of the anger that had animated her jog; longing. Her breast panged with a strong and powerful feeling of want.
But for what? What was it that she really wanted?
For a second she was confused, but everything became clearer once she realized how much the man in the clouds resembled Ranma.
"You idiot," she murmured softly, sadly.
"Oh, s-sorry, I didn't know I was bothering you. I'll go now."
Akane nearly jumped out of her skin when she suddenly heard a surprise voice from behind her. She spun around, fists balled and readied just in case, but she lowered her defenses when she saw how scrawny the person behind her was.
In fact, that scrawniness was familiar…
"Gosunkugi? When did you get here?"
The true answer to that question was much creepier than Gosunkugi's answer of "I was just jogging by and noticed you here. So I, ahem, thought I'd just drop by and say hello."
"Oh, do you jog by here often?"
"...you could say that."
Gosunkugi took a seat next to Akane. His face was red, but Akane chalked that up to exercise and sunlight. He sat silently for a few moments, playing with his fingers while his face became even redder, until he suddenly shot his face to Akane's direction and said, "So, uh, I heard you haven't asked Saotome out to the dance yet."
"What? How did you hear about that?"
Gosunkugi ignored her question.
"Well, uh...yeah, I didn't," she said. "I m-might have...but he was such a jerk about the whole thing! And it doesn't matter now anyway, because Kasumi asked him and now he's going with her."
"Yeah, I was surprised when she said so to— I mean, whaaaaaaaat? As someone whose just learning about this right now, I'm shocked. Can she even do that?"
"I don't know, Principal Kuno didn't mention anything about non-students asking students to take them. But even if it is against the rules, I know that Ranma will bring her anyway, if that's what he wants to do."
She spat that angrily, but behind her strong tone, there was a part of her that wondered if Ranma would ever break rules like that for her...
She shook her head, trying to dispel any thoughts of Ranma. "But enough about me and him and Kasumi," she said, putting on a friendly smile for her classmate. "Has anyone asked you out yet, Gosunkugi?"
"M-me?" His face was crimson now. "N-no, no one's asked me yet."
"That's a shame," said Akane. "I'm sure there's a girl waiting to ask you. Maybe when we're back in school next week."
For Gosunkugi, she could've broken all his fingers one-by-one, and it would still hurt less than those words.
"But actually...I was just thinking," he slowly and carefully started, "well...I haven't been asked yet...a-and you haven't asked anyone out yet, so I was thinking that umm..."
He tapered off, hoping she would connect the dots from there. Curse his tongue, he was too bashful to continue.
At first, Akane looked at him like he was speaking Babylonian. Then, in the depths of those beautiful brown eyes, the first sparks of recognition lit. Her eyebrows raised, and her mouth rounded into the shape of a little o.
"Gosunkugi..." she said his name softly. A sharp electric shiver ran down his spine.
She extended her hand towards him, and as he watched it come closer, he gulped, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down. In that moment, he didn't know whether he wanted to run and flee or stay with her on this bench for all of eternity.
Oh Akane…
When her hand finally came to his shoulder, when the goddess of love delivered unto him the gift of her touch, Gosunkugi nearly shrieked, from fear and joy. His face, redder than a dying star, turned to look at her when he heard his unworthy name pass through her heavenly lips again.
"Gosunkugi..."
Ah, he could listen to her say his name forever.
"...you're right!" she declared excitedly. Before Gosunkugi knew it, her graceful touch turned into a friendly yet still painful slap on his shoulder. He clenched his teeth and summon all his willpower not to scream like a little child.
In pained tone, he asked, "Right about what?"
"There's still a lot of time before the dance! We could easily get people to go with us! I could still find someone to ask to the dance."
"Wait, wh-what?"
Akane didn't hear that. She stood up, balling her hand into a powerful fist. Her eyes flashed with the angry, fiery confidence befitting a martial artist. She looked far into the distance, and Gosunkugi recognized immediately that her thoughts were miles away from him as well.
I'll show you, Ranma, she was thinking. I'll bring the best man I can find, and I'll show you, you cross-dressing jerk.
The poor boy at his side, now completely defeated and resigned to knowing Akane wasn't going to ask him, started to stand and walk away, when he suddenly felt her grab onto his shirt and pull him back. She smiled at him, maybe intending it to be reassuring, but to Gosunkugi it looked horrifying.
"Come on, we'll be each other's wingmen," she told him, and before he could say anything, she started dragging him towards the city, in search of dates for the both of them.
Over the course of his time living with his curse, Ranma would occasionally contemplate swimming all the way back to China. He never did, of course, but it was a comforting thought sometimes, especially when he was under stress and felt like he had to get away.
He never felt such a strong urge to actually go through with it until Nabiki came to his room and told him that her father wanted to talk to him in the dojo.
Alone.
He had two options; jump out the window right now and actually swim across the sea, or be a man and face up to Soun Tendo.
I can take him in a fight, if that's what he's planning, Ranma thought as he made his way not to the sea but to the dojo. I can...right?
He probably could, but...he knew how protective Mr. Tendo was of Kasumi, how scary he could be whenever he thought Ranma was cheating on Akane, how skilled he had to be to survive training under Happosai...
Ranma gulped. He came to the door of the dojo, and figured he still had time to run. He didn't even have to go to China. He could go to the Korean DMZ and still feel safer!
Oh, what the hell, let's just get this over with.
He stepped into the dojo, and...
Mr. Tendo looked up from a scroll he was reading, and pleasantly smiled at the sight of Ranma. "Ah, Ranma, come in, sit with me."
Huh...he didn't look like he wanted to strangle him.
Ranma tentatively sat down in front of the Tendo patriarch. "Nabiki said you wanted to say something to me?"
"Ah, yes, I did. It's about Kasumi."
The teenager flinched. "Look, I don't know what you're thinking, but you have to believe me, she just asked me out of nowhere, I didn't—"
"Oh, son, calm down, you're babbling," said Soun. When Ranma quieted down, he coughed and continued. "I know that Kasumi asked you to take her to your school's dance of her own accord. I'm not angry with you, if that's what you think. It's true I would have preferred if you would have gone with Akane, but if I understand the rules of this American dance your principal is holding, only girls can ask boys to the dance?"
Ranma nodded to confirm.
Soun sighed. He knew his youngest daughter well: she would not have asked Ranma, not in a thousand years. She was too indirect with her feelings, and her thickheaded fiancé was too thickheaded to pick up on them on his own.
"Then I suppose that's Akane's business that you two are not going together," he said. "I brought you here to ask you, Ranma: will you take Kasumi with you?"
"Well, uh, you know I'm not even sure it's allowed, she doesn't go to our school, so..."
"Son, we both know you don't care for school rules."
That was true, and Ranma gave a resigned sigh knowing he wasn't going to weasel his way out of giving a proper answer. If he had to give a straight-forward answer, he would.
The only problem was he didn't know how to answer.
How do I feel about Kasumi? Ranma thought hard on the matter. The more he thought, the more he realized how little he actually knew about her. He knew she cooked, he knew she cleaned, he knew she was a homemaker and she was good at it, but Kasumi the person was someone he didn't spend much time with. He spent a lot of time with Akane, and he even had his days with Nabiki, but Kasumi was...more distant than her sisters. She seemed more formal and less casual, and...and...
I'm just making excuses, aren't I?
The truth was, it wasn't that Kasumi was distant. It was that he never bothered to get close to her. In one of his rare moments of self-reflection, he thought about how much she did for him, and realized that that was all he saw her as: someone who did things around the house.
What are her goals?
What kind of guys does she like?
What does she do when she has her free time?
What books does she read?
What kind of person does she aspire to be?
Ranma couldn't answer any of these, and he felt ashamed that he had taken her for granted for so long as just a pleasant-mannered housewife.
"I-I don't know," he finally answered. "I don't even know if I could take her as a friend."
The older man didn't say anything at first. He exhaled deeply through his nostrils, and rubbed his chin. He closed his eyes, and opened them again to look at Ranma. Though Ranma never spoke a word of his actual thoughts, something in Mr. Tendo's eyes seemed understanding.
"Ranma...can I tell you something about Kasumi?"
Ranma nodded.
"When Kasumi was in her senior year of high school, her class had set up something big and fun for their festival. I forgot what it was, but I remember how excited she was for it. It was almost strange to see, she had Akane's level of energy." He paused for a low chuckle, before his face darkened. "Unfortunately, she didn't get to go."
"What? Why?"
"The day of the festival, I came down with a horrible sickness. I spent all morning in bed, sweating and in pain. I mercifully passed out during the afternoon, and woke up in the evening still hurting. But...do you know who I saw at my side when I woke up?"
"Kasumi?"
He nodded. "She had a tray in her lap, with steaming soup and water and fruit. I asked her why she was still here, and told her that she should go and have fun, that this was her last time to make memories with her friends...and she responded by scooping up a spoonful of soup and telling me to open my mouth."
Soun looked up to the ceiling, tears threatening to spill from his eyes. He kept himself composed and dignified, and looked back to Ranma. "She didn't complain once that she was missing her festival...not that night, not any night after it. She sat by my side and nursed me to health, and did so without her smile faltering even once."
"Wow..." Ranma was amazed. He knew Kasumi could be caring, but this was still incredible for him to hear. He tried to imagine himself in that position; his female self at his father's side, feeding him soup...
...and no, he couldn't do it, he wouldn't have done it.
"I'll admit to you that my wanting you to take Kasumi with you to the dance is not entirely selfless. It's almost as if I want to repay her for that night, to give her another chance to have the night she truly deserved. And since she's asked you to take her, then I'll ask too..."
He got down on his hands and knees, kneeling before Ranma. The young man almost shrunk back.
"...Ranma, please take my Kasumi with you to your dance!" he shouted.
"D-don't yell that!" Ranma responded almost as loudly. He was starting to blush, and what he wanted more than anything was for his father's friend to get off the floor.
But—and he wasn't a softie, so don't get the wrong idea—he had to admit he was touched by the story he had just heard. Again, if it were him, he wouldn't have cared so much about his old man. But Kasumi did care, and for her to put that aside to take care of someone else...maybe that was a clue into who she really was, as a person.
It was almost like she was duty-bound, and Ranma could respect that.
But even the most duty-bound people deserve a break, he reminded himself.
A warm red blush spread across his face, but his resolve was firmed. He stood up from the ground, and looked towards the house. His eyes narrowed, determined.
"Okay, I'll do it," he said. "I'll take her to the dance."
I don't know if I'm even the right guy to do it, he thought, but she asked me, so I'll do my bes—
"Oh, thank you!" shouted Mr. Tendo, leaped up from the ground, two long streams of tears flowing from his eyes. He tackled Ranma and hugged him like he were his true son.
Ranma, for his part, fell to the ground screaming before his face slammed into the floor of the dojo.
It wasn't until the sun was setting that Akane noticed that Gosunkugi had run off. She supposed she couldn't blame him; it had to be soul-crushing to be offered up to nearly a hundred girls, all of them refusing and most reacting with disgust and, in some cases, physical violence.
"Poor guy," she said, scratching her cheek.
But never mind him...what about her? Akane had the opposite problem, being that she got too much attention. Specifically from one certain man...she had to admit, Kuno was nothing if not persistent. She had punched him out cold more times this afternoon than she could remember to count.
But even Kuno aside, there just wasn't any boy from school that she clicked with. She didn't want to go with any of them. If she was being honest with herself, the only person she did want to go with was R—
She shook her head, dispelling his name. "Forget about that idiot," she told herself. "He's going with Kasumi. Not me."
Those last two words felt bitter in her mouth.
Dejected and dispirited, Akane was just about to turn home when she heard a sudden cacophony of shouts, bicycle bells, and...were those quacks she was hearing?
A blur of red, blue, pink, and gray passed by her, speeding as fast as a lightning bolt. Akane cried out as her hair flew into her eyes. She brushed it away and was about to shout at the multicolored blur when she felt something heavy and fluffy collide with the back of her head.
Growling, she grabbed the object and saw that it was a duck. A very familiar looking duck. A very familiar looking duck with glasses...
Oh. Now everything was making sense.
"Hello, Mousse," she said, setting the duck on the ground. The duck quacked up at her, maybe returning the greeting. Akane quickly conjured a kettle of hot water (when you spend as much time as she did with Ranma, you learn a few tricks) and she splashed the bird with the water. From the steam arose a naked Chinese youth.
"Thanks," he said.
"Mousse, please put some clothes on!" she shouted, covering her eyes.
"Oh, right, sorry."
He ran off for a few moments, then came back. Akane didn't uncover her eyes until he said, "Okay, I'm wearing clothes now."
"Good." She sighed, then pointed in the direction of the speedy blur. "Shampoo said no to another date again, huh?"
"Unfortunately," he said with a sad nod. His eyebrows knit in frustration. "I don't understand why she won't give me just one chance. I know I could make her happy, I just...ah, I'm complaining, you don't need to hear this Akane Tendo."
"It's fine, I don't mi—"
"It's that damn Ranma!" shouted Mousse, shaking his fist at the heavens above. "Everything was fine until he came along. Back then I had a chance. But now Shampoo won't even look at me, all for a guy who won't even look at her!"
Akane snorted. "We're on the same page there," she said. "Ranma's been causing me a lot of strife too recently."
"Really? How so?"
She explained to him the situation, and Mousse shook his head. "You deserve better," he told her. "So does Shampoo."
"Thanks. Well, good luck with Shampoo...I guess. I need to be getting home now, it's getting late."
She turned to leave, but stopped when she heard him exclaim, "Wait!"
She looked back to him, and he continued, "So you're not going to your dance with anyone, am I correct?"
"Yes?"
"Well I have an idea...why don't you ask me?"
"You?" Akane said in pure surprise. "I thought you only had eyes for Shampoo."
"I do, of course. There's no way a tomboy like you could ever compare to a beauty like her."
She punched him in the face.
"But I also have my goals set on defeating and humiliating Ranma," he continued, trying to ignore the pain of his bashed nose. "And what better way then to do to him what he does to me? Just like how he tries to steal my Shampoo, I'll show him that I can treat his woman better than he can."
"Who are you calling his woman?" hissed Akane, raising her fist to prepare for another strike. Mousse flinched and threw up his arms in self-defense.
"My apologies. But you have to admit, there is a lot of mutual benefit for us teaming up AKA you asking me to come to your school's dance."
That...was actually true. Akane knew it would really get under Ranma's skin to see her with Mousse. As for Mousse himself...well, she wasn't anywhere close to attracted to him, but he was fairly good-looking and they were friends...to some extent. In any case, it would better to go with him than Kuno, which also wasn't saying a lot.
Forget about all that, thought Akane. What really matters here is that we have the same goal. We can work together on this.
She paused for a moment, reflecting on what she was doing. There was sadness in her heart, that she was approaching this dance, this beautiful event that she should be sharing with someone she cared about, with cold calculation and precision. Was this what she really wanted? Was this what she wanted for her and Ranma on that night?
There will be dances in the future, she thought. This time, though, it's war.
Poor Akane. I felt bad for her in that second-to-last paragraph. :(